The live-stream from the Climate Café featured in a series of events run by the Carbon Literacy Project on Friday November 5. The events placed the spotlight on Carbon Literacy within universities and colleges, and reflected COP26’s focus for the day on Youth and Public Empowerment.
Carbon Literacy is becoming embedded in the formal and informal curriculum at the University, and is defined as: “An awareness of the carbon dioxide costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.” It is delivered by testing and certifying successful individuals as Carbon Literate after they have participated in a days’ worth of learning and action.
At the Climate Café on Friday, after just having completed Carbon Literacy training, learners at the University discussed their experiences of the training with peers and others taking part. A recently recorded video of Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eunice Simmons, was also shared, on why and how the University is expanding its Carbon Literacy initiative.
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Professor Simmons, who is also a Board Member of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges; Chair of the Mersey Forest Partnership and is attending COP26 events said: “We believe it is our civic responsibility to provide our students with the knowledge and skills to take action on climate change. We are empowering our students not just to establish a career, but to become purposeful, engaged citizens with the confidence to act for a more sustainable future in an increasingly uncertain world.
“We see Carbon Literacy training as the foundation to building awareness of the carbon costs of our everyday activities and essential to our ability and motivation to reduce our carbon footprint as individuals, as communities and within our organisations.
“We owe our students the opportunity to make a difference on climate change, not only as our future leaders, but as parents of the next generation.”
She added that the long-term ambition, in line with the Citizen Student strategy, was for Carbon Literate students to offer Carbon Literacy training to local communities and businesses, building their networks and taking positive action in the midst of the climate emergency.
Friday’s event was led by Sustainability Officer, Tamara Hunt; Environmental Administrator, Heather Johnson, and Waste and Recycling Officer, Sam Hay, with support from Dr Ann Hindley, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing, Tourism and Destinations at Chester Business School, who delivers Carbon Literacy training.
Other talks during the day included representatives from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) discussing their readily available toolkit course developed by its Green Academy, which was set up by Professor Simmons in a former role. Colleagues from Manchester Metropolitan University also launched the Carbon Literacy for University Leaders toolkit which builds on NTU’s course.
The University’s digital Climate Café is run fortnightly, providing online events for students and staff to hear more about and discuss climate issues.
To see a recording of Friday’s event, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-Fzr2T_r8.
For more information about the Carbon Literacy Project and all of Friday’s events, please go to: https://carbonliteracy.com/.
